IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL 8, NO 12, DECEMBER 1996

Transmission of Directly Modulated 2.5-Gb/s

Signals Over 250-km of Nondispersion-Sh.ifted
Fiber by Using a Spectral Filtering Method
Chang-Hee Lee, Sang-So0 Lee, Hyang Kyun Kim, and J ung-Hee Han
Abstract- We demonstrate 250-km nondispersion-shifted fiber
transmission of directly modulated 2.5-Gb/s signals. The chirping-
induced power penalty is reduced by using a spectral filter
whose transmission peak is tuned to mark wavelength of
the modulated laser output. A well-known intensity modulation
with a sufficiently high extinction ratio is used to suppress the
intersymbol interference induced by nonuniform frequency mod-
ulation response of semiconductor lasers. The observed results
are explained theoretically by using eye closure penalty.
I. INTRODUCTION
N directly modulated multigigabit transmission systems,
I chirping-induced broadening of optical spectrum increases
effects of fiber chromatic dispersion considerably, and it
limits transmission distance. On the other hand, the phase
modulation characteristics of semiconductor lasers were uti-
lized to obtain unchirped signals [1]-[3]. For example, the
unchirped ASK signals were obtained by spectral filtering
of FSK [l], [2], DPSK [l], or CPSK [3] signals. By using
these techniques, transmissions of directly modulated IO-Gb/s
signals over dispersion-limited distances were demonstrated
[ I]-[3]. However, the semiconductor lasers have nonuniform
frequency modulation responses due to thermal effect. It
causes intersymbol interference of received signal, especially
for low bit-rate signals. This feature prevents the applica-
tion of these methods for 622-Mbh or 2.5-Gbh transmission
systems which use transmitters made of directly modulated
semiconductor lasers. There also exists an intrinsic power loss
of approximately 3 dB in the spectral filtering process unless
we use a balanced detection receiver. Recently, a spectral fil-
tering method had been -proposed to increase the transmission
distance of directly modulated multigigabit signals [4], [SI.
In this paper, we propose a new spectral filtering method
to reduce chirping penalty in directly modulated multigigabit
transmission systems [4]. A well-known intensity modulation
with a sufficiently high extinction ratio is used to suppress the
intersymbol interference due to nonuniform frequency modula-
tion responses of semiconductor lasers. By using this method,
Manuscript received J une 18, 1996; revised August 1, 1996. This work was
supported in part by theHA-ISDN Project.
C.-H. Lee, S.-S. Lee, and H. K. Kimare with the Lightwave Communica-
tions Section, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Taejon,
305-350, South Korea.
J .-H. Han is with the Optical Transmisssion Section of the Lightwave Com-
munications Section, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute,
Taejon, 305-350, South Korea.
Publisher ItemIdentifier S 1041-1 135(96)08763-0.
EHzgd-H:-y
Extinction ratio =lOdB
Spectral width(-tOdB)
=0.27 nm
NDSF
150km
NDSF 1 OOkm a
1725
pq~=+ (i ~, rIn-liney
detector amplifier
- -2 L - I
APD based
receiver
Fig. 1. Experimental setup.
wedemonstrate error-free transmission of directly modulated
2.5-Gb/s signals over 250-km of NDSF (nondispersion shifted
fiber). The observed results are explaineld by eye closure
penalty analysis.
11. EXPERIMENTAL REsmrs
Our experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. It consists
of an optical transmitter, a spectral filter, an optical power
amplifier, transmission fibers, an optical in-line amplifier, and
an optical receiver. The input signal is 2.5-C;b/s pseudorandom
binary sequence of 223 - 1 length. The extinction ratio of the
modulated bulk DFB laser output is 10 dB and the spectral
width of that is 0.27 nm at -20 dB points from the peak.
The spectral filter is a regular fiber Fabry-Perot filter with a
bandwidth of 12 GHz and its insertion loss is overcome by
the optical power amplifier. The measured eye diagrams in
Fig. 2 show complete reduction of the relaxation oscillation
peaks with the spectral filter. The extinction ratio and the
spectral width are I1 dB and 0.23 nm with the spectral
filter, respectively. The average optical power coupled to the
transmission fiber is 10 dBm. The back-to-back sensitivities
of -34.5 and -35 dBm were measured before and after the
spectral filter, respectivel~y, at a BER (bit-error rate) of
We performed a transmission experiment with 150-km
NDSF and measured the BER characteristics. The optical
in-line amplifier was not used in this experiment. When the
transmitter output was (directly coupled to the optical fiber
through the optical power amplifier, the measured power
penalty was 2.2 dB at a BER of lo-. However, this penalty
is reduced to 0.5 dB as shown in Fig. :!(a), if we put the
1041-1135/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE
1726 IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 8, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1996
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5
0 In
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I OOpsldiv
(b)
Fig. 2.
and (b) with thespectral filter. Insets arethe calculated eye diagrams.
Measured eye diagrams of the optical transmitter output (a) without
spectral filter between the optical transmitter and the optical
power amplifier.
Wealso demonstrate 250-km NDSF transmission of directly
modulated 2.5-Gbh signals by utilizing the spectral filter as
shown in Fig. 3(b). After transmission of 100-km, the loss
of optical fiber was compensated by using the optical in-line
amplifier. The input and the output powers of the optical in-line
amplifier were -12 and 10 dBm, respectively. The measured
total power penalty without the spectral filter was 2.5 dB. The
power penalty with the spectral filter was 1.4 dB that was sum
of the dispersion penalty of 0.7 dB and the additional penalty
of 0.7 dB due to ASE (amplified spontaneous emission). The
ASE penalty was measured by replacing the transmission
fibers to optical attenuators. The spectral filter also improves
the steepness of BER curves as shown in Fig. 3. It may
be noted that the optimum decision threshold voltage of the
decision circuit is decreased when we use the spectral filter.
To study effects of the spectral filter location, we used the
optical preamplifier that had the spectral filter as an amplified
spontaneous emission (ASE) noise filter. The measured power
penalty at BER was 0.6 dB after transmission of 150-
kmNDSF. This value is close to the power penalty measured
in the previous experiment. The spectral filtering technique
can be implemented automatically when we use an optical
preamplifier, since that needs an optical filter to reduce ASE
noise.
150km with filter. 1OUBm
3
E
-37 -36 -35 -34 -33 -32
Input power IdBml
(a)
I 0-3
- Back to back w/o filter
250 km with filter
-37 -36 -35 -34 -33 -32 -31
Input power [dBm]
(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Measured BER curves after 150-kmNDSF transmission with and
without the spectral filter, and (b) 250-kmNDSF transmission with optical
in-line amplifier.
111. NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
To understand our experimental results quantitatively, we
perform numerical simulations. The optical transmitter is mod-
eled by using well-known rate equations for single-mode
semiconductor lasers. We assume the linewidth enhancement
factor of the semiconductor laser is 3. The modulation signal
is 2.5-Gbh pseudorandom binary sequence of 27 - 1 length.
The modulation current is adjusted to have IO-dB extinction
ratio at the output of the laser. The dispersion of the optical
fiber is 17 ps/nm.km. For the receiver, we assume a third-order
Butterworth filter with a bandwidth of 0.6 times the bit rate. We
neglect nonlinearities of optical fiber in numerical simulations.
The calculated eye closure penalties are shown in Fig. 4
as a function of transmission distance. For comparison, we
also show measured power penalles. For the curves with-
out spectral filter, the eye closure penalty increases rapidly
as we increase the transmission distance. Rapid increase of
the chirping penalty arises from quick broadening of highly
chirped (i.e., transient chirp) portions [6]. After moving these
portions from their own time slot, the remaining portions of
the signal have a small residual chirping. Thus, the chirping
penalty increases slowly or decreases slightly. It may be noted
that a decrease of the chirping penalty can be explained as a
conversion of the residual FSK component to the ASK signal
by the chromatic dispersion of transmission fiber [7].
When we introduce a spectral filter of 12-GHz bandwidth,
the transient chirp portions are removed as shown in eye
LEE et al.. TRANSMISSION OF DIRECTLY MODULATED 2.5-Gbls SIGNALS OVER 250-kmOF NONDISPERSION-SHIFTED FIBER 1127
Linewidth enhancement factor =3
Receiver BW =1.5GHz
A----
with filter
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Transmission lengthtkm]
(a)
1.5 r
- b
! ! 0.9
n
0.7
Linewidth enhancement factor =3
Transmission distance =150 km
0.5 1
4 9 14 I 9 24
Filter Bandwidth[GHz]
(b)
Flg. 4. (a) Calculated eye closure penalty as a function of transmission
distance, and (b) eye closure penalty as a function a spectral filter bandwidth
for 150-kmNDSF transmission
diagrams of Fig. 2, and the eye closure penalty decreases.
The improvement of the eye closure penalty is about 0.5 dB.
The spectral filtering also increases the extinction ratio of the
output signal, since the wavelength of space is different from
that of the mark due to adiabatic chirping. However, this
effect is not included in the calculation of the eye closure
penalty. It is a source of discrepancy between the experimental
results and the simulation one. It may be noted that the
proposed method requires implicitly flat sections in mark
and space pulses. Thus, the semiconductor laser with fast
rise and fall times is required to apply the spectral filtering
method.
We show the eye closure penalty versus the spectral filter
bandwidth for a transmission distance of 150 km in Fig. 4(b).
The reference point for the penalty is the back-to-back eye
diagram without the spectral filter. The optimum bandwidth is
around 9 GHz, and it depends on the linewidth enhancement
factor. The eye closure penalty starts to increase as we decrease
the spectral filter bandwidth from the optimum value. This
increase of the penalty is caused by excess subtraction of
mark pulse energy by the spectral filter.
Iv. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION
The spectral filtering method is proposed to increase the
transmission distance of a well-known intensity modulated
signal with a sufficiently high extinction ratio instead of phase
modulations [1]-[3] witlh a low extinction ratio. In other
words, the nonuniform frequency modulatilon response of the
semiconductor laser does not affect the system performance.
It implies that the proposed scheme is equally applicable for
bit rate of 622 Mb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, or 10 Gb/s. In addition, we can
use a simple direct detection optical receiver without intrinsic
power loss of 3 dl3 due to the spectral filteiing. The proposed
method will bridge shorter transmission distances compared
with the previous signal conversion methods [1]-[3], since the
chirping is not removed completely due to wider bandwidth of
the spectral filter than that of the signal bit rate. However, the
use of a wideband spectral filter simplifies some engineering
problems, such as locking of the spectral filter transmission
peak to an input wavelength.
The transmission distance of a directly modulated signal can
be increased by optimizing the extinction ratio penalty and
the chirping penalty. Unfortunately, the optimum extinction
ratio is a function of the transmission distance and it may not
satisfy the ITU-T recommendation of 8.2 dl3 [8]. However,
the proposed method can be used within a certain transmission
distance without adjustment of the extinction ratio or the bias
current of the semiconductor laser.
In conclusion, we have proposed a new spectral filtering
method for a chirping penalty reduction method in directly
intensity-modulated multigigabit signal trainsmission systems.
The proposed method has been demonstrated successfully in
250-km NDSF transmission experiments at 2.5 Gbh. The
observed results are theoretically explained by using analysis
of the eye closure penalty.
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